Our Company
Board of Directors
Between 2018 and 2022, Mr. Eansor has been President of the Protein Sciences Segment at Bio-Techne Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-quality purified proteins — notably cytokines and growth factors, antibodies, immunoassays, as well as biologically active small molecule compounds. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Eansor was Senior Vice President of the Biotech Division of Bio-Techne. He had P&L responsibility for the largest division of the company which includes the R&D Systems, Novus and Tocris brands of assays, proteins, antibodies, small molecules and cell culture products. From 2013-2015, Mr. Eansor was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for Novus Biologicals, LLC, which was acquired by Bio-Techne in July 2014. Prior to joining Novus, Mr. Eansor was President of the Life Science Research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific from 1996 to 2010 and then was promoted to serve as the President of the Bioscience Division of Thermo Fisher from 2010 to 2013. Mr. Eansor has a BSc in Chemistry from University of Western Ontario, a Bachelor of Commerce in General Business and Economics, and an MBA from the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Throughout his career, Mr. Elms has held numerous leadership roles in the healthcare sector. Mr. Elms currently serves as Managing Partner at Aisling Capital, a leading life sciences investment firm. Prior to joining Aisling, he was a Principal in the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group of Chase H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist), where he was involved in over 60 financing and M&A transactions, helping clients raise in excess of $3.3 billion in capital. Prior to H&Q, Mr. Elms traded mortgage-backed securities at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. His previous healthcare sector experience includes over two years as a pharmaceutical sales representative for Marion Laboratories and two years as a consultant for The Wilkerson Group. Mr. Elms currently serves as a director of ADMA Biologics, Ajax Health II and Zosano Pharma and was previously Chairman of the Board of LOXO Oncology. He also serves on the INVO Board at Northwestern University. He received his M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.
For over 20 years, Dr. Vera has worked extensively on developing novel T cell therapies for clinical applications and has extensive expertise in performing research in the field of adoptive T cell therapy. Dr. Vera has made several contributions in the field, specifically in the areas of developing and streamlining therapeutic candidates from the research bench to the clinic and from academia to industry.
Dr. Vera is a co-founder of Marker Therapeutics, and he has previously collaborated with Celgene and Bluebird Bio in developing novel CAR T cell therapies.
He has also been the recipient of different prestigious awards including the Idea Development Award from the Department of Defense and Mentored Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society. Dr. Vera attained his M.D. from the University El Bosque in Bogota, Colombia.
Katharine Knobil, M.D., currently serves as Chief Medical Officer at Altesa BioSciences, Inc. Prior to joining Altesa, Dr. Knobil served as Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research and Development at Kaleido Biosciences, Inc and Agilent Technologies. Previously, Dr. Knobil served in various leadership positions during a 20-year career at GlaxoSmithKline plc, before becoming Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Knobil received a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University and an M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc.